#piclet

[anotherafrica-blog]

Congratulations to the winners of the international photography competition POPCAP '16. The 5 winners of this 5th edition are Jason Larkin, Sabelo Mlangeni, Henry Nicolas, Thom Pierce, Julia Runge. They were selected from 900 applications submitted from 94 countries. POPCAP '16 – an initiative by piclet.org (@popcapx ) Image: POPCAP'16 Winner Sabelo Mlangeni from the series ‘Isivumelwano, An Agreement’. Courtesy of the artist and Piclet. #popcap16 #piclet #sabelomlangeni

[anotherafrica-blog]

Congratulations to the winners of the international photography competition POPCAP '16 @popcapx The 5 winners of this 5th edition are Jason Larkin, Sabelo Mlangeni, Henry Nicolas, Thom Pierce, Julia Runge. They were selected from 900 applications submitted from 94 countries. Image: POPCAP'16 Winner Jason Larkin, from the series ‘Waiting’. Courtesy of the artist and @popcapx #piclet #popcap16 #thompierce #AfricanPhotography

[quinnandpaper]

Plucked from the lattice in her grandmother’s side yard, Quinn rolls the stem of the wildflower between her fingers. A shy smile’s interrupted by the gnaw of her top teeth into her bottom lip, and even though she tries to mask it, the duck of her head and curtain of blonde hair doesn’t quite hide the color deepening along the ridge of her cheeks. But somehow she manages to push past her nerves and reach out and up to tuck the bloom behind her best friend’s left ear. 

The bloom’s as beautiful as her, and the contrasting dark and gold, well, “To match your eyes, Rach.” 

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tracking down the flowers hadn’t been easy. They’re not in season and greenhouses nearby didn’t have them as part of their stock. But after placing a few -- or a plenty -- phone calls, Quinn had managed to find a nursery down in Maryland that could ship a bouquet by opening. 

And because that first summer they spent together was theirs and theirs alone, Quinn doesn’t want to share this moment with anyone, which is why she arrives to the theatre before the doors open, and after sending off the text, lingers by the stage door until a production crew member ushers her inside and directs her toward Rachel’s dressing room. 

Once she knocks twice on the door -- unmistakably Rachel’s with its stars -- Quinn can’t help but feel like she’s seventeen all over again. Giddy and nervous and still just a little bit in love.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

She’s nervous. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? To be nervous after a lifetime preparing for today. For her opening night on Broadway. But she is. Previews went well. Better than well, really. The only reason she’s not the most talked about name in Broadway right now is that fate wanted her big break to happen right when Lin-Manuel decided to make sure history has its eyes solely on his show. So she shouldn’t be nervous. But she is.

She’s been in her dressing room for a while now, running through lines and steps and how many heartbeats she hopes she’ll have to wait for the show to resume after she stops it at least once. And Rachel knows it’s just a matter of time - a matter of waiting until the nerves currently sitting heavily in her stomach turn into the usual flutter and she feels the energy and excitement of the last minutes before her show. But until that happens, she knows there’s nothing she can do to distract herself from all the scenarios - some good, some bad - running through her head. Until her phone vibrates, and Quinn’s name flashes on her screen.

Quinn is coming. And maybe Rachel was hoping she would. Maybe it had something to do with her insistence that Fiona should wait with her dads and see her after the show. Maybe, with some tweaks that make her heart ache if she thinks too hard about them, tonight can match the opening night she’s been dreaming about since she was sixteen.

“Quinn.” She smiles, one hand already moving to reach for her best friend’s. “I thought you were coming after the show with the rest.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Quinn can only shrug, a motion that carries upward to turn her smile a bit sheepish until she has enough of her wits about her to squeeze the hand wrapped around her own. She wants to say that she couldn’t wait, that like always she wanted to be selfish and steal away a moment that was just hers and theirs, but Quinn doesn’t. Instead, she bends low enough to scoop up the vase she had set just to the side of the door frame and utters words from years ago. 

“To match your eyes.” And new ones, too. “And your heart,” Quinn’s grinning now, “but just the gold bits. Not the black ones.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

It takes some effort to tear her eyes away from Quinn’s face - the light dusting of pink on the bridge of her nose and the smile tugging at her lips - but as soon as she does and sees the flowers, she feels like she’s traveled back in time to their Kentucky summer and the first time Quinn said those words to her. To match your eyes. She remembers the look in Quinn’s eyes and the pink on her cheeks. How soft her skin felt when she tucked the flower behind Rachel’s ear. How hard it was to hear her when Rachel’s head was full of words she knew she couldn’t say if she wanted to keep her friend.

And now, here they are. By the time Rachel realizes her eyes are watering, it’s too late to stop a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks, and she wipes at them with the back of her hand, smile in place and heart thumping against her ribs. “They’re so beautiful.” It feels a little like she’s gone through the looking glass and her life is just a little bit askew. It’s exactly like she always dreamed it, but not quite. Quinn and the flowers and the words, but Quinn isn’t hers. Beth and her mom will be in the audience, but Beth isn’t theirs and her mom isn’t hers, either. And then there’s Fiona. She loves Fiona. She really does.

“Thank you.” There’s an instant of rebellion against the unfairness of it all when Rachel looks into Quinn’s eyes and wonders what would happen if this time, because she’s not sixteen anymore, she did lean in and thank Quinn for her flowers with a kiss and an ‘I love you’. It’s enough to make dark brown eyes gaze at pink lips, and to make Rachel lean closer. But she’s not sixteen anymore, so she presses the lingering kiss to Quinn’s cheek instead. And then she whispers her “I love you” with her free arm already around Quinn’s waist, asking for a friendly - just friendly, of course - hug.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

With hands full of flowers and a smaller palm she refuses to let go of just yet, all Quinn can do is lean into Rachel’s embrace and listen to the twang of her tugged heartstring at Rachel’s ‘I love you.’ It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve exchanged those words over the years, they never fail to result in a visceral reaction that has her heart racing even if she knows the parameters in which said words are spoken. But still, Quinn echoes them with her own truth when she returns the kiss a little closer to Rachel’s ear. “Love you always.” 

Quinn takes only a few more self-indulgent moments of closeness before pulling back, but never dropping Rachel’s hand and walking further into the room to deposit the vase and its flowers on a table. “I don’t want to interrupt your process more than I’m sure I have,” her now free hand moves to curl around and squeeze Rachel’s hip, “so read the card once I’m gone, and...” She can feel her eyes glass over as memories of that summer surface. Rachel declaring she would be a star and Quinn’s skepticism until she received her very own personal performance. “No one is more proud of you, or will cheer louder for you tonight than me.” 

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

She wants to tell Quinn to stay, but she knows it’s not what she should do. She needs to focus, and that’ll be impossible with her heart’s favorite distraction in her dressing room. It’ll take her a few minutes to get over this last I love you (and the unspoken ‘as a friend’ tacked on at the end), and she knows her mind will wander every time she looks at the flowers on her table. To missed opportunities and difficult choices and unfair realities. So she doesn’t ask her to stay, but she doesn’t let go of her hand, either.

“You know I’ll sing for you.” Her voice sounds a little flimsy behind the tears, even if she’s smiling. Quinn knows she’ll sing for her. Does she know she always does? But tonight Quinn will really be out there in the audience, sitting with her dads and Shelby and Beth and Fiona. Maybe they’ll all think Rachel is singing for them. “I promised I would.” She promised with her hand on Quinn’s belly and her feet in the lake, right before she promised many other things she never said out loud. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

They made so many promises -- many unspoken -- that summer, but Quinn’s glad that one they managed to salvage from its broken wreckage was staying in each others lives. Whether the reunion at ACup was happenstance or fate, it brought them back together and rekindled a friendship that looking back on her life now, Quinn’s not sure how she manged to live without. Rachel knows her, her secrets and dreams (well, most of them), and she’s familiar and safe and comforting and...home. Rachel’s home, even in just their friendship, she’s Quinn’s rock and constant.

“And I can’t wait to hear you sing. And watch you dance. And just light up that stage.” There’s a dreamy quality to Quinn’s words as she finally drops Rachel’s hand, though only so it’s free to come up to cup her cheek. 

It would be so easy to duck down and steal more than just Rachel’s pre-show time, but when Quinn dips her head, it’s only to place her kiss to Rachel’s forehead. “Shine bright.” The words are pressed against Rachel’s golden skin before Quinn has to back away, to resist temptation. But before she reaches the door to take her leave, she offers her best friend a final wide smile -- she really is so proud -- and, “You’re a star, Rachel Berry.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Quinn’s hand cups her face, and Rachel feels like her best friend is holding her heart instead. Keeping it still. For a split second, she thinks Quinn is going to kiss her. She watches her head dip just so, and she’s so sure it’s really going to happen that the feeling of soft lips on her forehead is like someone squeezing her heart until it hurts. There won’t be a kiss. But there’s pride in Quinn’s eyes, and that can be enough, can’t it? She’ll shine bright. For her. She’ll be her star.

It takes her a moment to recover, even after Quinn leaves. You’re a star, Rachel Berry. And she is. But there’s an empty part of her heart that sometimes, when she’s not vigilant enough about keeping her mind on other topics, she fears not even all the Tonys in the world would be able to fill. Idly, her fingers trace soft yellow petals as she goes looking for the card.

To the girl with the golden eyes and heart, and most importantly on this night, voice. Blow them all away, Rach. 

Love, Lucy.

Love. Lucy. Rachel suddenly, as she stares at the card and the name, realizes she has absolutely everything she’s ever dreamed of. She has Broadway. Friends, a life in New York City, a wonderful girlfriend she loves, and a cat. She even has Shelby as well as her dads, and just like she always wanted, Beth and Lucy will be there in the audience on her opening night. But it’s not right. And when her heart starts beating again, she feels it crack and ache in a way that makes her cry like she hasn’t done in months.

Rachel cries for everything she’ll never have. For prom with Lucy and a gardenia, Beth’s first lullabye and a two-bedroom apartment in New York. For Lucy, who is as much a thing of the past as the accent she used to love and Rachel shed the moment she left Kentucky. Lucy doesn’t exist anymore, and maybe her Rachel doesn’t, either. And the thought that they were each other’s for as long as they were real is enough to slowly soothe Rachel’s heart and dry her tears. She’ll be on the make-up chair in ten minutes, and that’ll take care of the rest.

Lucy and Rachel stayed by their lake in Elizabethtown, but Quinn and Rachel are still here. Together, in a different way. And that, she figures, can be enough.

[stillminibabs]

There’s an uncoordinated hop in her step as she shimmy and shakes her way out onto the set of the popular – even after all these years – daytime talk show to the sound of adoring fans and an almost familiar tune she can very nearly place. She’s beaming with pride as too tall heels guide her to the host she’s grown familiar with over her years playing the beloved silver screen diva of Los Angeles. She stops in front of her chair to perform a sudden, and admittedly embarrassing rendition of the robot offering the taller blonde a belly laugh and a hug before taking her seat.

“Now, Rachel,” Ellen crosses her legs, barely waiting a beat after the audience quiets before starting. “You were actually here just a few weeks ago, right?”

The singer beams. “That’s correct.”

“You did the whole hair and makeup thing, were dressed and ready to come on out. Our audience was excited to have you and yet, you literally went running out of the studio ten minutes before you due on camera. Care to explain before you grovel for forgiveness?”

She nods her head, wetting the smirk that spreads across her lips as she lets out a soft chuckle. “Yes, happily, and I hope you’ll all be very forgiving.” She pauses, jokingly eyeing the audience before she continues. “Actually my wife had just gone into labor with our first son,” Rachel’s attention turns to the screen as it first lights up with the photo of Quinn and Eli she had instagrammed for Mothers’ Day.

"And that’s - that’s him then?" Ellen points to the enlarged photo behind them.

Rachel nods, a quiet ‘mhm’ slipping from her lips, as the photo changes to her with Eli and his perfect little features. She gestures towards him and leads the audience in a chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘awes,’ immense pride and love radiating from her every pore.

"He is quite the looker."

"Yes, he’s a very handsome, very loud little boy," she teases, finally shifting her gaze back to the interview. "So, I think we can all agree I had a very good reason."

"Oh, he’s loud is he?"

"He is a belter!"

“Like mother, like son,” Ellen jokes before continuing. “So with a lot of sleepless nights in your future, can we assume you’ll be taking a break, or will we get to see you in a new project soon?

"Well never say never, I suppose but yes - I think it’s safe to assume. Who would even hire me with the spit up, and the mom jeans, and the sort of permanent zombie look."

"Oh, well you don’t look like a zombie today."

"You’re very kind, magicians back there I swear." The audience laughs and Rachel smiles.

Ellen turns to the camera. “We’ll be right back after this break.”

[ladygayvibes]

"Beca?" Chloe picks up her pace when she sees the familiar brunette waiting for the light to change on the corner, "Beca!"

"Whoa," caught off guard, Beca slowly turns to the direction of her name being called — her face lights up when she sees a smiling, familiar blonde waving her down, "Chloe!"

"According to Facebook, I wasn't expecting you in LA for another month!" Chloe says as she collects the small brunette in her arms for an excited squeeze, "I'm so glad I ran into you!"

"Yeah, well, the radio station asked me to start early," Beca shrugs, smiling at Chloe, "You look great — happy maybe? And blonde.  You're looking blonde and happy."

"I just bought a new skirt for these shoes I got last week — so, I guess I am pretty excited about that," Chloe winks and pauses briefly before she speaks again, "How's your move going?"

"My things aren't going to be arriving for another week or so," Beca stifles a sigh.

"What's wr— are you okay?" Chloe asks gently, picking up on some tension.

"Jesse and I broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry —"

"No, no — it's okay. It's just a little awkward. Anyway, I put my shit in boxes and he's going to send them out for me this week or something."

Though she worried she was being slightly insensitive, Chloe couldn't fight the grin that started creeping its way onto her face. She did notice Beca hadn't been tagged in any 'couple' photos for months now  (the up and coming DJ was never one to post any on her own.) And yeah, Chloe crept Beca pretty frequently — especially for the last few weeks since she announced her move to LA. And so, maybe Chloe stared a little too long at the three photos Beca did post as her profile pictures just yesterday. And just maybe Chloe has been thinking about all their unfinished business since she graduated Barden University. There was no way she'd be able to stop the grin.

"What?" Beca, despite her mood for the last couple days, couldn't help the smile that was making its way onto her own face. Three years since she last saw this former Bella and it felt like nothing had changed at all. Soon, she was mirroring Chloe's grin.

"Oh, nothing," the blonde shrugs as she stretches her face and looks off to the side briefly — just to relax it into an even bigger smile than before.

"There's no such thing as nothing with you," Beca rolls her eyes and shakes her head a bit.

"I just," Chloe didn't even pretend to be discreet as she totally checked Beca out again, "...think we're going to be fast friends again."

"I like the hat," Beca says quickly trying to draw attention away from the blush that so quickly finds its way to her face.

"You're going to like the skirt even more when we grab drinks later..."

"Tonight?" Beca raises a brow.

"...unless you have something else you have to do."

"I can do tonight," Beca says, "My empty apartment with no internet or cable can handle a night without me — I think."

"Good," Chloe says as she lets that familiar energy makes its way through her, "I know just where I'm going to take you."

"I —" Beca attempts to shake the grin off her face but fails miserably. That flip thing that happens in the space between her lungs and her belly, well, happens. Twice now. "I look forward to it."

"Oh, the excitement is warranted," Chloe smirks.

"I admit it," Beca says, "You do have game."

[flingpossecule]

Jimmy's letter to Amelia.

Ames, 

You wouldn't believe the way things are here. It's beautiful. So much more than what they told us in Sunday School. There's flower everywhere! Remember that garden I wanted...well it's here too. So many fruits and vegetables and herbs.. Oh you should see it Ames. 

You know.. Cas really did take care of me. Even in that last moment...before he died. He sent me here. He told me what a wonderful job I'd done and said I'd be rewarded. And he was right Amelia. He was so right.

I can't wait for you to see it someday too.

I love you and Claire so much.

Love,

Jimmy.

[lostinaconfusedmess]